The Stanley R. Mickelsen Safeguard Complex

Stuff They Don't Want You To Know

iHeartPodcasts

Society & Culture

4.3 • 10.7K Ratings

🗓️ 17 September 2025

⏱️ 64 minutes

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Summary

At the height of the Cold War, both the Soviets and the United States raced to hold supremacy across the globe. Over in North Dakota, you can find a strange relic of this unending conflict -- the Stanley R. Mickelson Safeguard Complex, a billion-dollar boondoggle built to detect and destroy Soviet missiles. It opened on October 1st, 1975. Just one day later, on October 2nd, Congress shut it down. In tonight's episode, Ben, Matt and Noel ask: What happened?

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Transcript

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0:00.0	From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies, history is riddled with unexplained events.
0:06.5	You can turn back now or learn the stuff they don't want you to know.
0:12.0	A production of IHeart Radio. Hello, welcome back to the show.
0:28.2	My name is Matt.
0:29.1	My name is Noel.
0:30.3	They call B. Ben.
0:31.5	We're joined as always with our super producer, Dylan, the Tennessee pal Fagan.
0:36.1	Most importantly, you are you.
0:38.2	You are here.
0:39.2	That makes this the stuff they don't want you to know.
0:43.7	Cold War, still here, never left.
0:45.7	Don't call it a comeback, right?
0:47.5	Et cetera, et cetera.
0:49.6	This is one that several listeners suggested to us a number of years ago, actually, when it was making the rounds on social media.
0:58.6	Maybe the best way we get into it is to start with a question, what's the weirdest building we've been in as individuals?
1:07.8	The shaken crawdad over there on Beaufort Highway. Really like a merry
1:12.6	ground. Super odd. I remember that one. I've never been in it. But I haven't either, but I remark
1:17.7	upon it every time I go past. And I'd like to one day. The strangest building I've been in
1:22.8	is the Omega Mart. I was... Oh, I love that. I'm so glad we were able to take that trip.
1:28.4	That raises the bar for strange, interdimensional, fun.
1:31.7	That was a good time.
1:33.1	A Miao Wolf thing in Vegas.
	...

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